BALTIMORE — There wasn’t any panic inside M&T Bank Stadium after the New England Patriots’ first loss of the 2019 season.

After a rip-roaring 8-0 start with a historic defensive effort, the Patriots met their match in a 37-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night.

Hours after quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Ravens totaled 372 yards, the Patriots’ defensive players knew what the problem was.

“We need to be better in the run game, and we need to be better overall,” safety Duron Harmon said. “That’s everybody. That’s everybody filing gaps. That’s everybody tackling. That’s not just one group. It’s all of us. We’ll look at this game, learn from it, take a little time off to readjust and we’ll get ready for Philly when it’s time.”

Although the Patriots were insanely good over the season’s first eight weeks (allowing 7.6 points per game), some cracks started to show.

One became evident a week earlier, when Cleveland running back Nick Chubb ran for 131 yards on 20 carries.

It was seen in Week 4, when Buffalo running back Frank Gore ran for 109 yards on 17 carries.

It was even seen for one play in Washington, where Steven Sims took one carry 65 yards for a touchdown.

Finally, on Sunday, it was Jackson scoring two rushing touchdowns and Ravens running back Mark Ingram rushing for 115 yards on 15 carries (7.7 yards per carry).

The Patriots’ inability to stop the Ravens’ vaunted running game caused their defense to spend way too much time on the field.

The Patriots were happy that they held Jackson to 3.8 yard per carry, but the quarterback had his moments. He kicked things off with an easy, 3-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

On the next drive, he escaped the pocket for an 18-yard gain. That set up a field goal. On the third drive, Ingram ran for 53 yards. On the very next play, running back Gus Edwards ran untouched 12 yards for a touchdown.

“We just have to play better fundamental football,” said Patriots defensive lineman Lawrence Guy said. “That’s what it breaks down to – playing down by down. They’re a good team. They made good plays. It’s just we should play a little bit better overall. They pretty much outperformed us tonight, and it shows. We have to go back to the film and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

The Patriots’ defense settled down after falling in a 17-0 hole. It finished the half by forcing two punts and a turnover (Kyle Van Noy forced a fumble). The problem was that New England couldn’t sustain that in the second half.

Jackson kicked off the fourth quarter with a touchdown pass to Nick Boyle. That drive soaked up 8:09. Baltimore buried the Patriots later in the quarter with a 14-play drive that ate up 9:35. Jackson capped it with his second rushing touchdown.

“The run game. We weren’t getting off the field. They had long drives,” Harmon said. “We talked about it. For us to be good, we can’t let them have the long drives and keep us out there. We just didn’t do what we wanted to do, what we set out to do. Tough game. But we’ll learn from it, and we’ll be better from it. ”

Added Van Noy: “We always want to get off the field … but they sustained really good drives. We stayed on the field too long. We have a lot of things to fix, and we have the right group to do it with.”

The Patriots’ defensive players won’t let this performance nullify all the positives from the first eight games and will focus on the next game, Nov. 17 at Philadelphia, after this week’s bye.

“We have to understand we’re going to get everybody’s best,” Harmon said. “They came ready to play. We didn’t start the way we wanted to. Being down 17 early to these guys is not the position you want to be in. Just got to come out and play better next game.”

Added Guy: “It’s a good learning tool for the up-and-coming games. We take that and keep fighting for what we need. We’re a good brotherhood. It’s not going to damper our spirits or anything like that. It’s OK, we’re going to pick each other up and learn from our mistakes and continue to play.”

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